Rethinking Universal Service: Citizenship, Consumption Norms, and the Telephone

One of the reasons the proponents of expanded universal service have not made much headway is that they have not been able to provide a coherent justification for the major resource and policy commitments it requires. The lack of consensus on the very meaning of the term "universal service" has added to the confusion. This article argues that it is critically important to articulate a clear justification for universal service before we discuss what it should include and how it should be funded, the two main preoccupations of the current debate. It answers the "why" question by drawing on the literature on consumption norms and citizenship rights and thereby provides a cogent justification for universal service. A clear articulation of the rationale for universal service should reduce some of the confusion in the current debate and bring greater clarity to the ongoing debate on this important public policy issue.     

关于文化大发展大繁荣的几点思考

文化发展繁荣涉及诸多方面,有效推进、落实文化建设发展之事,必须以人为本、多用平民视角观察和致力于基础性工作。"文化大发展大繁荣",意在大范围和包容性、可持续地发展繁荣文化,内涵是惠及所有人的发展,而非时间上的加速发展或违反客观规律的大跃进。发展繁荣文化要了解、关注:提高公民综合素质是文化发展繁荣的首务与旨归;发展繁荣文化应彻底地摈弃假大空思维及行为、内容;"百花齐放"是文化建设繁荣的要件与标识;文化建设发展要重视、保持老牌大报的科普水平。     

“Lift Up a Living Nation”: Community and Nation,Socialism and Religion in The English Hymnal, 1906

The lead editors of The English Hymnal (1906), Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, found Victorian hymnody in need of serious revision, and not just aesthetically. This musical book was intended as an expression of the editors' Christian socialist politics involving in the participation of the congregation. This article examines how they achieved this by the encouragement of active citizenship through communal music-making, using folksong tunes alongside texts which affirmed community. This article argues that the editors wedded religion and high-quality music with a focus on citizenship drawn from British Idealism; using a cultural movement to seek social change.     

School democratic meetings: Pupil control discourse in disguise

The aim of this qualitative case study is to investigate how learning in “democratic participation” is constituted by the social interaction and conversation pattern in school democratic meetings in a Swedish primary school. According to the findings, a pupil control discourse and the Initiation-Response-Evaluation pattern dominates the conversations. The teacher initiates by asking a question, the pupils respond by answering the question, and then the teacher evaluates that response. The findings show no discursive shift from traditional classroom talk to democratic deliberative talk. Instead there is an emphasis on the “right answers” and subordinating authorities rather than deliberative dialogue and democratic participation, which influences pupils to adopt a naïve or a cynical attitude to democracy.     

Social literacy and citizenship education in the school curriculum

This article explores citizenship education's need to focus on both ‘political’ and ‘social’ literacy within a communitarian framework. The Crick Report (1998; see also Lahey, Crick and Porter, 1974), while recognizing that the social dimension of citizenship education was a precondition for both the civic and political dimensions, concentrated largely on ‘political’ literacy. This article examines the social dimension of citizenship education. Concern with the social dimension of the curriculum in schools is not a recent interest, but changes within society have accelerated the social demands made upon schools. At the very least, society expects schools to correct the behaviour of children and to teach them values which usually means insisting on ‘good’ behaviour. The social development of pupils has thus assumed a much greater place in the aspirations of schools. Programmes of personal and social education, together with citizenship education, invariably emphasize a range of social skills and these skills are introduced early and built upon throughout the years of schooling. An individual's sense and ability to make socially productive decisions do not develop by themselves; rather, they require knowledge, values and skills. Above all opportunities are required for children to experience social relations in such a way that they are able to operate critically within value-laden discourses and thereby to become informed and ethically empowered, active citizens.     

浅析近代德国公民身份的发展轨迹

在近代德国历史上,公民身份问题与移民问题和福利国家的建设密切相关。德国与英法在公民身份发展史上的差异是其历史特殊性的一面镜子。它对20世纪德国历史悲剧性的发展有着重要影响。     

The Crick Report: difference,equality and racial justice

This article examines current policy on citizenship education in England, drawing on the recommendations of the 1998 Crick Report, Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools. In particular, it seeks to establish whether the proposals for citizenship education outlined in the report and draft frameworks for citizenship education, published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority as part of the National Curriculum review for England, have the potential to contribute towards racial equality. The report sets out to provide a framework for citizenship education which is intended to strengthen our democracy. The publication of the Macpherson Report of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry in 1999 led senior politicians to acknowledge institutional racism in British society and to pledge themselves to a programme to eradicate racism. Racism is therefore now officially recognized by those in government as one of the forces which operates to restrict the citizenship rights of minorities and undermines the principles of democracy. An understanding of racism, the ways in which it serves to undermine democracy, and skills to challenge this anti-democratic force are therefore essential features of any education programme which seeks to promote the political literacy of citizens. This article argues that a key aim in any programme of citizenship education must be to enable young people to understand the barriers to citizenship and to equip them with the skills to challenge and overcome such barriers. It examines the images and understandings of multiculturalism in the Crick Report and considers how it deals with questions of difference, equality and justice. It further examines whether the proposals within the report are an adequate basis from which sound anti-racist education programmes might be developed or whether the report itself may unwittingly reflect racism. It concludes by suggesting how the citizenship education project might be modified so that it promotes a vision of a multicultural society founded on principles of human rights and of schools where children are able to realize their rights on the basis of equality.     

Citizenship education in France and Britain: evolving theories and practices

In the late 1990s both the British and the French governments gave new impetus to citizenship education. This article examines the theories and world views that underpin the formal syllabuses for citizenship education in England and France. It notes that whereas the English curriculum aspires to create a diverse society founded on multicultural citizenship, an insufficiently strongly agreed statement of values undermines the implementation of the project. The French syllabus, on the other hand, emphasizes a commitment to anti-racism, human rights and civil action against injustice. Its theoretical basis in the French Republic, committed to individual equality without distinction, denies any recognition to the existence of social groups based on culture or ethnicity. This blindness to difference also tends to undermine citizenship education as a social project intended to promote integration through schools. Whereas French citizenship education is intended to integrate individuals into a predetermined, existing republican framework, English citizenship education apparently aims to create a new society and a new national identity. The article concludes that such a project requires an explicit commitment to and promotion of human rights as the basis for a social consensus and citizenship.     

Education,citizenship and difference in the South African transition: policy,politics and practice

The article looks at three approaches to analysing the relationship between education, citizenship and difference that have been evident in the transition to democracy in South Africa. First, it examines the position that education moulds good citizens and overcomes discriminatory differences, which is evident in the South African Education Policy Act. (This position is similar to that expounded in the Crick Report.) Second, it looks at the view that education is an enactment of citizenship and a celebration of difference. This is articulated in the new South African Curriculum 2005, which celebrates the school as just one of a number of learning spaces, but which is only slowly being implemented with considerable difficulty in overcoming deeply entrenched and multifaceted discriminatory views. Third, it looks at the view, articulated in the South African Constitution of 1996, that education is a relatively autonomous space and that in this particular institutional space education, difference and citizenship are in tension. While there is potential for a creative dialogue to emerge in this historically formed space, preliminary research findings indicate how difficult and diffuse the process of transformation is likely to be.